Points of View
Last week in the blog, I talked about reviews and their importance both to the writer and to prospective readers. When writing a review, we give our opinions or points of view. 

For writers, though, the point of view or POV is a decision we make even before we start to write. That may be just a simple choice between writing in the first person or in the third person. Especially in short stories, you would stick to one character's POV. We have to ask ourselves who is telling the story and whose eyes and voice will we be using. There are advantages and drawbacks to both writing in the first and third person. Writing in the first person allows you to create a very credible character where you know his or her deepest thoughts and emotions. The limitation of this is that you can only describe what you saw and this could set you apart from the action. If you are using the 3rd person, you can still relate the whole story through one character's eyes or point of view. As Della Galton has written in her book, The Short Story Writer's Toolshed, 'viewpoint is very important when it comes to making your characters sympathetic - as readers, we tend to warm to the character whose head we are in.' 

In longer stories and novels, the advantage of the 3rd person is that you can introduce other people's viewpoints and then the reader may know something that another character doesn't. In the Monday evening meeting of WriteGroup, we had an excellent discussion about a member's writing which was written in the 3rd person. We talked about whether the writing was from the narrator's POV or the character's point of view. In the chart, it would be called the 'Objective' 3rd Person and the 'Limited Omniscient' 3rd Person.

Here is an interesting article about what fiction editor Beth Hill calls 'Deep POV' from The Editor's Blog Thank you to fellow writer, Sue McDonagh, for sharing it. I hadn't heard the term before. Beth Hill suggests that with deep POV, 'readers see scenes through the viewpoint character, feel story events as that character does.' She goes onto say, 'Deep POV allows writers to do away with he thought, he felt, he wondered, he saw, all those phrases that intrude into fiction, that unnecessarily encumber the story.' Perhaps we do this when we write anyway and just not label it with the term 'deep POV'.

As writers and readers, which do you prefer - 1st or third person? I tend to write most of my stories in the first person. In my dual narrative novel, Clara's story is told in the 1st person whereas Rose's is in third. Although I'm not in Rose's head as I am Clara's, I hope that by telling the story from her viewpoint consistently, she still comes across as a credible character whose thoughts and feelings are conveyed to the reader through what she says and does. 

How many of you write in the 2nd person? I have only written one story in the 2nd person and feel that the emotion of the piece comes across as it is based on personal experience. It doesn't fit the short story guidelines for a magazine or a competition as it reads more like a monologue so it's sitting in my file going nowhere. Any suggestions?

Thank you for reading my blog. I'd love it if you'd comment about which POV you prefer. You may follow me on Twitter on @JanBayLit and on Jan Baynham Writer Facebook Page.

Reviews

Alfie Dog Fiction is running a new READER COMPETITION where all you have to do is download a paid story during March and send a short review of the story (approx 30 – 50 words). The winner will receive £100 and two runners up will each win one of their short story collection books as either a paperback or ebook as they prefer. The competition seems to be a good way to promote the importance of reviews even for individual short stories. I'd love it if you chose to review one of my stories. You'll find them HERE.

The importance of reader feedback cannot be ignored and could be said to serve a number of purposes:

1. Reviews help other readers choose what they want to read. Your opinion can help persuade or dissuade a reader from purchasing or borrowing a book. 
2. They can boost readership for an author. Review sites can be an excellent way of marketing a new book.
3. Reviews help you analyse a book in a way that you don't tend to do when you are actually reading it. It's the reflection afterwards that helps form your review.
4. They help writers know which parts of their writing are working and what needs to be improved.

Author, Luisa Plaja, gives her top tips for writing a good book review on the Book Trust site. (Please click on the link for the full interview.) In summary, she recommends:

1. Starting with a few sentences about what the book is about but obviously no spoilers.
2. Thoughts and feelings about what you liked about the book and the way it was told.
3. What you didn't like, what didn't work for you.
4. Summary of the review, the type of reader the book may suit
5. Any marks or star rating

A writer friend of mine, Kath Eastman, regularly writes reviews on her blog on Nut Press. This week she reviewed James Hannah's debut novel, The A-Z of You and Me. It's a very positive review that explains why she thinks the novel is successful. She talks about the way that Hannah has written the story and the review is analytical as opposed to being descriptive. 

What about poor reviews? Can a bad review still be helpful?
What do you think about the importance of reviews?

Thank you for reading my blog. It would be great if you left a comment about your review experiences. :-) 

You may follow me on Twitter @JanBayLit and my Jan Baynham Writer Facebook page.

To Be Continued...

This week has been a week of cliff hangers if you watched Eastenders and their thirty year anniversary celebrations. Each live episode ended on a point in the plot which left the viewer needing to tune in to the next programme to find out what happened....or some viewers anyway! This got me thinking about what persuades our readers to keep turning the pages and come back for more.

What does make the difference between a story that we can't put down and one that we can read at a leisurely pace or even fail to finish? I would suggest a few of the following:

1. real, credible characters with whom I can fully empathise, their flaws as well as their merits, especially a main character I can really care about
2. a gripping plot that presents me with lots of questions that need answering, keeping me hooked from the very first page
3. language that does not hinder the pace of the writing but adds to the flow of the story
4. vocabulary choices that enhance the images of the story that I am forming in my head
5. chapter endings that make me not want to wait to pick up the book again.

Will I ever be able to write a story like this? A very tall order indeed! I am well into draft one of my very first ever novel and already I can see which points on the list are the most difficult for me. I like to think that readers will be able to relate sympathetically to my main characters, especially Clara and Rose who are the narrators. I'm also very aware of ending the chapters with some sort of hook which will be answered or picked up at the beginning of the next chapter. But what about the plot lines? Will my readers be fully engaged with them to want to read on? Is the pace right? Perhaps, at the moment, it suffers from what Philip Larkin called 'the muddle in the middle'. Barbara Dynes has written an interesting article entitled 'Moving the Story On - the key to a good middle' in the March edition (Issue #161) of Writers' Forum magazine. She writes about tension in a story 'which needs to run along its entire length, and you can build that up by adding obstacles and complications along the way.'  

For me, chapter endings with hooks or cliff hangers are vital to make the reader come back for more. It may be said that script writers of soaps do this to excess, but we do need to think about leaving an unanswered question at the end of chapters or instalments. Readers will then start to form possible answers in their heads before returning to the story to see whether they had predicted correctly. This week, I came across an excellent post on How To Write Chapter Endings That Make Readers Want to Turn the Page on Anne R Allen's blog, October 12th 2014. She invites her readers to match the endings of the first chapters to some book titles from well known authors. This is followed by an excerpt from Jessica Bell's book which gives advice on ending chapters.

My only experience of writing stories as short serials has been with Creative Frontiers. 'I Want Gets Nothing' was posted over five days in November and this week my three part crime story, 'Stalking Diana' was published. You can read each part here:

PART 1

PART 2

PART 3 - END

I tried to end each instalment with something to bring the reader back the next day. I was pleased that some of the comments suggested that readers did want to come back and find out what happened:

Is Diana who I think she is? I’ll just have to keep reading …(Part 1)

This is getting much darker. No idea how it will end. (Part 2)

A really good end to this.... (Part 3- END)

How do you ensure that your readers keep reading? Have you any tips for good chapter endings? I'd love it if you left a comment. Thanks. :-)

Thank you for reading my blog. You may also follow me on Twitter @JanBayLit and on my Jan Baynham Writer Facebook page.

WriteFoxy Writers' Inspiration Day

Last Sunday, I attended a writing event held in Dudley with a writer friend of mine, Kath Eastman. It was organised by Miranda Dickinson, best selling author of Fairytale of New York and It Started With a Kiss. She promised a 'day for writers to come together, share ideas, be inspired and, most of all, reconnect with a love of writing.'  And it did just that! I came away inspired and wanting to get back to my writing.

First, we introduced ourselves to other writers over coffee. It was interesting to hear how some writers were like me with some short stories published on-line, others had agents and the publication dates of their books were imminent and others were already published. What was lovely was to put faces to some of the names I follow on Twitter and to chat to them about their writing.

Miranda opened the event by explaining the format of the day, including pointing out that there was a room set up as a Writers' Den for our use if we didn't want to sit in on any of the workshops. Needless to say, I didn't want to miss a word from Miranda and her speakers so I didn't venture in! 

She then introduced us to her three presenters: 

- Julie Cohen, best selling author of Dear Thing and her new book Where Love Lies, which has just been shortlisted for the 2015 RNA Contemporary Romantic Novel category. 

- Kate Harrison, best selling author of fiction and non-fiction including The Secret Shopper series, the Soul Beach trilogy, The 5:2 Diet and her new book A Batch Made in Heaven.

- Rowan Coleman, best selling author of The Accidental Mother, Dearest Rose and The Memory Book.

Julie, Kate, Rowan and Miranda

The first workshop, led by Julie, was on creating characters. By the end of the session, we had each created a character not just through a description of his/her appearance and actions. We also looked at how objects used by a character can introduce symbolism into our writing, how a character's conflict may be internal and external and how a character can grow and change over the course of a story. 

After coffee time, it was the turn of Kate. We returned to a room where the lights had been dimmed, candles lit and we were asked to choose a pebble or sea-shell. She led us to think of our emotional blue-print when she asked us to think about the type of stories and themes we normally write about. Thinking about the emotional journeys we were taking in our stories in such a reflective way was designed to make us more confident.

Straight after an excellent lunch, Rowan's workshop was all about discovering your voice as a writer. Something that's very hard to define, yet it's integral to what is unique and distinctive about a successful writers' work. Rowan asked us to think of three words that sum us up as writers and we then had to think about how those words are intrinsically linked with what we want to achieve in our writing.

The final session of the day, 'Writing Against the Odds', was taken by Miranda. It was interesting to hear that even as very successful published writers the four presenters had all experienced disappointments and setbacks along the way. We shared what held us back as writers and the whole session served to boost our confidence and feel positive about our writing. From now on, whenever my writing is not going well, I will leave my computer and adopt my Superman pose! I'll chuckle as I remember eighteen writers all doing that in Miranda's session. :-)

The day had flown by and my head was buzzing. After saying good-bye to everyone and exchanging names of Twitter accounts and Facebook Writer pages, we headed home. 

Many thanks are due to Miranda, Julie, Kate and Rowan for such an inspiring day. If you get the chance to attend a WriteFoxy Writers' Inspiration Day, I thoroughly recommend it;  you'll be in for a treat!

What has inspired you in your writing lately? I'd love it if you left a comment. Perhaps you've been on a WriteFoxy day, too.

Thank you for reading my blog. You may also follow me on Twitter @JanBayLit and on my Jan Baynham Writer Facebook page.

You Don't Say

When I started writing fiction a couple of years ago, one of the things I had to learn quite quickly was how to handle dialogue. It is through dialogue that our characters come to life and we can show through their words a lot of information about them without telling the reader. I found that one way to hear dialogue is to eaves-drop on conversations...on a bus, in a queue to pay in a supermarket, in fact, anywhere where people are interacting by talking. I immediately start making assumptions about the people who are talking and about the situation that they're talking about. Later, I often start to think up stories about what I've heard. I noticed that very often the dialogue I overheard contained short sentences, part sentences and if I've written perfectly constructed complex sentences as dialogue, they will appear 'clunky' and unnatural. One member of my writing group writes dialogue particularly well and reveals so much information about his characters simply through what they say.

Where your story is set can be implied by the words used. My daughter moved to Manchester after many years living in Hertford. Now, when she's offered a cup of tea, she's noticed people say, 'Fancy a brew?' In a recent story, one of my older characters said to his young colleague, ‘You, ok, now, Nia, bach?' Even though a reader may not know what 'bach' means (little one), hopefully they would gather that it's a term of endearment in Wales where as if I'd used 'duck', 'pet', 'honey', 'princess', these would suggest other regional settings.

After years of encouraging pupils to use a variety of synonyms for 'said', I was soon taught that these give your story an amateurish look. It's best to stick to 'said' as the only dialogue tag and even then, it should not to be accompanied by an adverb. The words spoken should be the important ones to read and 'said' retreats into the background and almost becomes like a punctuation mark. As long as the reader knows who's speaking, we don't need a dialogue tag at all. A character's actions and mannerisms at the time of speaking can show the reader how the words were said and how the character was feeling. 

There is an excellent section on dialogue in Telling Tales: How to Write Sensational Short Stories, a book based on the first writing course I took which was taught by Lynne Barrett-Lee. In it, she says that writing good dialogue:

• brings your story to life
• moves the action along
• incorporates back-story and any vital off-stage information
• displays character and differentiates between characters
• creates atmosphere and tension

Have you written any stories after overhearing a conversation? Have any of you written a story completely in dialogue?

Thank you for reading my blog. You may follow me on Twitter @JanBayLit and on my Jan Baynham Writer  Facebook page.

Calling All Cat Lovers

My story 'Monty The Tabby Tom Cat' - inspired by a real life, Monty, belonging to my son and daughter-in-law, Jon and Rebecca, - appears in 'The Cat Who Chose Us and other Cat Stories' and is available at Amazon. 
http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Cat-Chose-other-Stories/dp/1326012940
All proceeds to Cats Protection.

Out With The Old...

I ended 2014 by succumbing to the horrible sore throat and coughing bug that seems to be doing the rounds. I did feel well enough to make the first meeting of the New Year with my writing group yesterday and knew it was time to get back to my writing. So, here goes...

 In my very first blog post on January 1st 2014, I wrote

I need to set myself some goals. I think, I procrastinate, I dilly-dally and dither so.........in 2014 I must WRITE,WRITE, WRITE! 
Here are the goals I've set myself:

• Start a writing blog  
• Write regularly and more often
• Get at least one story published in a woman's magazine
• Get back on track with my novel and finish a first draft.

I look forward to sharing my progress with you. Any advice gratefully received!

How did I do? Which of those goals were achieved?

• The Writing Blog - achieved    Apart from holidays and over Christmas, I have managed to post quite often. I am very grateful to the writers who have commented regularly - you know who you are so a big thank you! - and although sometimes there may not be many actual comments, the 'stats' reveal that the blog is being read.

         Stats - 51 posts with 317 comments, 9663 page views which included 4612 from the USA, 3828 from UK followed by page views in China, Germany, Ukraine, Russia, Romania and Poland. The post with the most views was the Woman's Weekly Workshop one.

         I'm sure the fact that after each new post, I put a link to my blog on my Jan Baynham Writer Facebook page as well as tweet on @JanBayLit has widened the readership.

• Write regularly and more often - achieved in part   I still don't write as much as I could. I spend too much time thinking about it. It's as if I need deadlines all the time - competition deadlines and the keeping up the word count of Nano worked for me. All I need to do is set deadlines for myself, I suppose.

• Get at least one story published in a woman's magazine - not achieved    Over 2014, I sent two to Take a Break Fiction Feast, two to The People's Friend and one to Woman's Weekly. That's not enough, is it? 
• It wasn't all doom and gloom on the short story front, though. Four more stories have been published on Alfie Dog Fiction, one of which was selected for the ghost anthology The Day Death Wore Boots.
• Four of my stories have been published on Cafe Lit and three more on Creative Frontiers, one of which was serialised over five days. 
• My story 'Missing Without Trace' was long listed in the Alfie Dog Short Story competition and my entry, 'Second Chances', was long listed in the Worcester LitFest Flash Fiction competition. It was included in the anthology Fifty Flashes of Fiction. 

• Get back on track with my novel and finish a first draft - almost achieved Although I haven't finished the first draft entirely, I have completed a great deal of it, 52000+ words. I'm definitely back on track with it and know where I'm going. Taking part in Nano in November was the way I achieved so much progress towards this goal. It proved I can sustain my ideas in an extended piece of writing and I'm excited about completing the first draft in the early part of the  year.

• I didn't achieve all of my 2014 goals but as this blog is about my writing journey, I certainly feel I have made progress and am looking forward to the year of writing ahead.

...In With The New

Here are my goals for the New Year:

• Complete the first draft of the novel and work on it so that I feel ready to apply to the RNA New Writers' scheme at 12.02 a.m. next January 1st. I had hoped to do that this year but knew it wouldn't be ready by the deadline in 2015. The piece of advice that I kept hearing in my mind was 'Make it the best you can.' Yes, I know I could have sent it in even though it wasn't finished but I know I have to finish a complete first draft before I can set about getting it 'to the best I can.' 
• Continue to write short stories and submit them to competitions and magazines. Perhaps set myself a goal of two new stories a month with the end of the month date as the deadline. 
• Aim to get one story accepted in a print magazine before the end of December 2015.
• Aim to make the short list of a short story competition sometime during the coming year.

I hope they are SMART targets for me.

Do you think they are specific enough? 

How I be able to measure my success? 

Are they achievable for the stage I'm at on my writing journey? 

Realistic for me?

Is a year too vague? Would it be better to break the year down into smaller chunks of time? 

What do you think? What are your goals and targets for 2015? I'd love it if you'd leave a comment. Thanks. :-)

Thank you for reading my blog and all good wishes for a very productive year in 2015! HAPPY WRITING!